Interview Tobroco-Giant at bauma 2019

Interview with Evert van den Broek, Marketing & Communication, Tobroco-Giant and LECTURA Press at bauma 2019

At Intermat Paris in April 2018 you presented a new model in a brand new product class, the G4500 wheel loader. What is so special about this model and how was it accepted by your customers?

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It was accepted very well because it was not in our product range. We had a loader of 6 t and of 3.5 t. Between those two machines, there was not a Giant loader available. That is a perfect addition to our product line. It was also our first loader that was ready for the new Stage V emission regulations. The G4500 was our test case of how everything was working out for the new engines and it was a really good test case. The production started in December last year and for the coming months, the production line is completely full. So the machines were received very well.

In 2017, Tobroco-Giant extended its cooperation with system partner Kiesel. Will you extend this cooperation by further types of machines or only to wheel loaders and to telehandlers?

The contract has been extended for 5 years because Kiesel is the perfect partner for us. They are well-known dealer in Germany for construction and landscaping equipment and they have special compact partners, as they call it. Kiesel has the availability of our complete range. So not only wheel loaders and telehandlers but also our line of skid-steer loaders and telescopic loaders.

They have built Coreum in Stockstadt, where they are displaying our machines and receive customers that can try our machines. It is a very professional partner for us and a perfect one for Germany.

So here at the bauma, you introduce the first electric Giant loader. This is your answer to a zero/emission future? What do you think about that?

At the moment, it is. We do not know what the future will bring if it is hydrogen or something else, but already in 2015 we introduced the electric skid steer, but it was still on the lead-acid battery. This machine was already built in cooperation with Jungheinrich, but the machine was too heavy with the lead-acid battery. It was back to the drawing table and the last years, we worked together with Jungheinrich to develop the machine as it is today.

We get the batteries, battery management system and drive system from them and the rest we fully developed ourselves. The last years we have expanded the number of engineers extensively especially for the electrification of our product line. The G2200E and G2200E X-TRA are the first two machines that are ready to go. The production will start already in October and we are planning to build 60 machines this year and 250 in 2020. The production for this year is already sold out so we can say that there is a lot of interest in the electric loaders.

How important is the bauma trade fair for your company?

It is very important for our company because we are growing as an international company. We already have 450+ dealers in over 50 countries and we are expanding more and more. For us, it is not only to receive the dealers from all over the world, but also to receive German customers together with Kiesel. Next to that it is the perfect place for us to find new dealers for countries, where we do not have dealers at the moment. And of course to introduce our electric loaders, this is the best exhibition for that, so it fits right in for us.

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